--- title: "Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2 gets renewed hope as director Francis Lawrence says old DC bosses stood in its way" url: https://badiyaa.com/keanu-reeves-constantine-2-francis-lawrence/ published: 2026-11-12T13:51:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-12T13:51:00+00:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Keanu Reeves’ Constantine 2 gets renewed hope as director Francis Lawrence says old DC bosses stood in its way Constantine 2 director Francis Lawrence says Keanu Reeves' sequel has new hope now that James Gunn and Peter Safran are leaving DC Studios. Francis Lawrence says the people who ran DC Studios were the reason Keanu Reeves has not made Constantine 2, and that their exit has given the long-stalled sequel fresh life. The director of the 2005 cult hit spoke after the news that James Gunn and Peter Safran were leaving DC Studios this month. “Not that I want anybody to lose their jobs… We have a script, we’ve been wanting to make it, and the people that were at DC were an impediment to us making it,” Lawrence said. “So, we are now more hopeful as of yesterday’s news that maybe now there will be another opportunity.” Those are unusually blunt words about a studio’s former leadership, and they arrive at an awkward moment. On November 5, days before the shake-up, word came of a separate new Constantine movie, and Francis Galluppi is its screenwriter. Nothing announced so far says whether Reeves has any part in that project. ## Why Lawrence thinks the door just opened Gunn and Safran, who built the new DC Universe, are stepping down, and former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham is taking charge of DC Studios. Badiyaa covered [Gunn and Safran’s departure and Latcham’s appointment](https://badiyaa.com/james-gunn-safran-dc-studios-latcham/) earlier this week. For Lawrence, that change means a new set of decision-makers who could read a script that he, Reeves and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have been developing for years. Under the old regime, the sequel had been placed in DC Elseworlds, a label for films that sit outside the main DCU continuity. Reeves said in March 2023 that Gunn had told him the film would still be made under that banner. It never reached production. ## Twenty-one years of almost: a Constantine 2 timeline Here is how long fans have been waiting, step by step: - 2005: Constantine opens in the US on February 18, earning $230.9 million worldwide on a budget of $70 million to $100 million despite mixed reviews. - 2011: Lawrence says he would love to make a darker, hard-R sequel. - 2022: Warner Bros. sets a sequel with Reeves returning, Lawrence directing and Goldsman writing, with J.J. Abrams producing. - 2023: Reeves says Gunn told him the film would still happen as an Elseworlds title; Lawrence says work resumed after the writers’ strike. - 2024: Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura says the script is finished. - February 2025: Reeves says he and Lawrence pitched a story to DC Studios and got the green light to write a script. - November 2026: A new Constantine film is announced with Galluppi writing; days later Lawrence says Gunn and Safran’s exit makes him more hopeful. Counting from the 2005 release to now, that is more than 21 years between John Constantine’s first screen outing and any second one, and still no camera has rolled on a sequel. ## What made the first film last Reeves played John Constantine, a chain-smoking exorcist who can see half-angels and half-demons, loosely adapted from the Hellblazer comics. Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare co-starred. Critics were split in 2005, but the film has since built a passionate cult following, and it got a 4K Ultra HD release for its 20th anniversary in February 2025. Lawrence, making his feature debut, went on to direct I Am Legend and most of the Hunger Games films. Reeves has stayed busy too; he recently signed on to [the Netflix hurricane thriller Maelstrom](https://badiyaa.com/keanu-reeves-maelstrom-netflix-alan-ritchson/). The next decision belongs to Latcham, who formally takes over at DC Studios on December 1. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Constantine (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_(film)) *Image: Chris Roth, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*